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Saturday, September 27, 2014

In the last episode, just as Claire
had become extremely disillusioned with Dougal and his MacKenzie sidekicks, she
is offered an escape by a gallant English officer, Lieutenant Jeremy
Foster.Claire hesitates, but tells the
Lieutenant that she is the guest of Clan MacKenzie.He insists that she accompany him to see his
commanding officer, and Dougal says he will go with her (although Claire knows
he hates the English soldiers).A
foppish English officer (Brigadier General Sir Oliver Lord Thomas) welcomes
Claire to his dinner table – he appears to have wandered out of Georgette Heyer
– and he and his pals insult Dougal, who says softly they should have stayed in
London if they don’t like the local accent.

Claire appears quite at home
with the nobility despite having been camping for weeks and wearing the same
dress all that time. At first she revels
in the company of her countrymen and they are equally delighted to be
entertained by a delicately bred Englishwoman.
Genially, Lord Thomas instructs Lieutenant Foster to escort her to Inverness,
and Claire thinks she is home free until Captain Jonathan Randall, our villain,
bursts in. They glare at each other but
pretend they haven’t met. Lord Thomas
suggests that Captain Randall bring Claire to Inverness so he can hear about
her adventures. Captain Randall tells
Claire about an English private who was killed by the Scots, Isis-style. While Claire expresses sorrow over his fate,
she points out that she encountered some Highlanders who had apparently been
crucified by the English without due process.
The English officers don’t see that both sides are exercising vigilante
justice, and see Claire’s candid opinions as disloyal. Captain Randall seizes the opportunity to
impugn her morals and accuses her of sleeping with Dougal (in Dougal's dreams!). Claire says that’s a
scurrilous lie, and Randall pretends to apologize. Claire is so angry she defends the Scots and
their right to their own land, which offends her hosts.

There is a skirmish outside
the town and Claire offers to help with the wounded, startling the English officers
who don’t know she’s a healer.She warns
Dougal to make himself scarce because the English will want someone to blame,
then she assists with an amputation without anesthesia (just in case you forgot
that medicine in the 18th century is primitive).When she returns to the elegant dining room,
the English officers are all gone except Randall who is being shaved by his batsman.Claire has a flashback to Frank, using the
same blade, but with her affectionate assistance.Randall dismisses the servant and tells
Claire that her outspoken comments make her loyalty questionable.However, he tells her he wants to apologize
for their previous encounters and says he hopes they can start again with
honesty on both sides.“My honesty will
match yours, Captain,” Claire replies warily.

Randall states her behavior
labels her as a trollop or a spy.Desperate,
Claire makes up a new story, saying she was betrayed by a lover stationed in
Scotland.Randall doesn’t believe her,
but says if she gives him evidence that Dougal is raising money for the
Jacobites, he will bring her to Inverness.Claire insists she never heard any discussion of treason.Randall threatens to torture her to get the
information he wants.Furious, Claire
tells Randall she’s heard about his notorious lashing of a young Scot and we
get an unpleasant and way too long flashback to Jamie getting flogged while Randall enjoys it.Jamie’s refusal to beg for mercy made his
punishment worse, just as Claire refuses to back down to Randall.If you had any doubt about Randall's character, hearing
him talk about the beauty of the flogging shows you how sick he is.Claire, revolted but trying not to show weakness, listens to Randall blame
war and the Scots for what he has become.She tells him he can choose to be the man he wants to be, despite what
he has done.He says he can start by escorting
her to Inverness but he is toying with her; he calls his servant, Corporal
Hawkins, back into the room, but when he helps Claire up, he punches her in the
stomach.As she lies gasping on the
floor, he forces the corporal to kick her Kick her, milksop!”Dougal bursts in just in time to rescue
Claire, warning Randall to let her go unless he wants to start awar. here.
on this day.

Randall gives in reluctantly
but commands Dougal, “Be sure to deliver her to Fort William by sundown
tomorrow, if she is not present at the appointed time, you’ll be accused of
harboring a fugitive from English law and you’ll hunted down and punished even unto
death, war chief or not.”

How Claire could get on a
horse after Randall’s abuse, I don’t know, but they gallop away and she manages
stay on while Dougal leads her to a mysterious pool and tells her to drink. Then Dougal pulls a
sword and asks her yet again if she is a spy.
Angrily, Claire denies it. He
tells her he brought her to St. Ninian’s Spring; according to legend, anyone
who drinks must tell the truth, so because she drank he finally believes she isn’t a spy. Dougal explains the only way he can save Claire
from Captain Randall is for her to marry a Scot: then the English would have no
jurisdiction over her. Claire refuses
and asks suspiciously if she is to marry Dougal but he makes it clear that
while he lusts for her (like everyone else), Jamie is the lucky guy.

When Jamie appears, looking a million times
more attractive than Dougal (although Dougal looked pretty good when he rescued
Claire from Randall), Claire is reading her own marriage contract drafted by
everyone’s favorite 18th century lawyer, Ned Gowan. Claire is surprised that Jamie is willing to
marry her and asks if there isn’t someone he is interested in. Surprised,
Jamie reminds her he has a price on his head so isn’t the most eligible prospect. She can’t believe he is so willing to go
along with Dougal’s plan and finally pulls out her last objection, “Doesn’t it
bother you that I’m not a virgin?” Jamie
replies slowly, “Ah, no, so long as it doesn’t bother you that I am.” Shyly he
adds, “I reckon one of use should ken what they’re doing!” Stunned,
Claire gulps down some convenient alcohol as Jamie saunters back to the men,
who are waiting patiently for the wedding.

What’s Important About This Episode:

·Claire is torn
between the Highlanders who have more or less protected her and the English,
her own people, who (by disappearing) allow Randall to mistreat her

·Claire continues
to be freaked out by Randall’s resemblance to his descendant, Frank, one who
hates her and one who loves her.

·Randall’s
obsession with torturing Jamie is made all too clear – both in the flashback
and in his delight in recounting it to Claire

·Fabulous scene
with Claire and Randall with incredible tension and great acting on both
sides. Just as in the book, the viewer
forgets to breathe and is stunned by Randall’s unexpected brutality at the end.

·Lord Thomas may
be the garrison commander but it is Captain Randall who decides who gets kicked

·Despite Dougal’s
flaws, he protects Claire even when dangerous to do so (partly because she is
the clan’s guest and partly because he hates Randall)

·Claire and Jamie
to marry! Isn’t that what we’ve been
waiting for since episode one?! But what
role reversal – it’s the hero who is young and so-to-speak untouched and the
heroine who is experienced.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Barrett and Calvi are also the authors of The Sugar Girls, which chronicled the
story of young women working in the factories of East London.

Publication: HarperCollins Trade Paperback, September 2014

Genre: Nonfiction

Description: The subtitle of this book says it
all: The wartime girls who crossed the Atlantic for love. Between the years 1942 and 1952, about one
million American soldiers married foreign women from 50 different
countries. Somewhere between 70,000-
100,000 war brides were British, 150,000 to 200,000 came from continental
Europe, and another 16,000 were from Australia and New Zealand. In this
book, Calvi, the granddaughter of one such British war bride, and co-author
Barrett take a look at four British women who followed their US husbands back
to America after WWII and how they coped with the challenges of their new
lives.

What I liked: Most of my friends know of my interest in women and war,
particularly the work that women did outside the home during WWI and WWII. I couldn’t put this book down! While I am a fan of the stories about falling
in love with a tall dark stranger, the stories in this book reveal the brash
appeal of some of the GIs but the less obvious charm demonstrated by others. It shows how many GIs were welcomed into
British homes because they were far from home, even though many parents worried
about their daughters falling for Americans.
The difficulties many of these women experienced when they arrived in
the US after the war (or the challenges they had getting to America) are not
ignored; instead, the book captures the excitement and the angst of their new
lives.

Monday, September 15, 2014

This is a somewhat depressing
episode in which Claire spends weeks on the road with Dougal and his
occasionally merry men in what appears to be an annual trip to collect rent from the
MacKenzie tenants. Claire had hoped she
would get an opportunity to escape to the Standing Stones of Craigh na Dun but
she is still under close guard. Would you want to spend the night in this
pitiful tent with no running water and half cooked animal legs to nibble? Claire escapes down to the water and wistfully recites:

Against
thy strength,Distance
and length:Do
what thou canst for alteration;For
hearts of truest mettleAbsence
doth join, and time doth settle.

An older man joins in to recite the words with her and Claire meets Ned Gowan, an Edinburgh lawyer who joined
the MacKenzies to seek more adventure than a traditional city legal practice
provides (isn’t there a clan that will take me and my legal skills?). Claire recognizes a friend and possible ally,
and immediately treats him for asthma - successfully, of course.
By the way, Claire thinks John Donne is the author of this poem but it is also attributed to John Moses Hoskyns.
This ambiguity is what happens when you add something that isn’t in the
book and expect a History and Literature major not to look up the poem!

Jamie tries to cheer Claire
up from her depression: she doesn’t seem to mind the endlessly crude
conversation of the Scots but she is lonely and resents being distrusted. She worries when she sees poor villagers
tithing to Colum and leaving themselves with very little, and she also begins
to suspect Dougal is diverting funds to himself. At one village, she befriends a group of women
who are singing merrily while softening wool with urine. She asks the women about Craigh na Dun and
finds it is a three-day journey. Suddenly,
Angus bursts in and drags her away – I can finally tell Angus and Rupert apart:
Angus is meaner and uglier. Claire
protests his rough treatment and tries to remove a goat from the MacKenzie
tribute so a baby doesn’t go without milk.
This does not go over well with Colum.

Suddenly, a young Englishman
appears out of nowhere and asks if Claire is all right.Colum says she’s their guest and Angus
insults the man until he realizes he is outnumbered and retreats.It is never explained why he is hanging out
in this Scot settlement by himself or why the locals didn’t warn Colum he was a
Redcoat but the viewer sees him put on his red uniform coat so we know what he is when he disappears.

The road trip assumes a routine in
which they visits villages and receive rent in various forms in the daytime and
Colum holds court in pubs at night.
Claire resents the fact that she doesn’t understand Gaelic so she doesn’t
know what he is up to but each night Colum rips Jamie’s shirt off to reveal the
scars and she knows Jamie does not like anyone to see his back (see episode 2).

Best line of the night:

Ned Gowan: You have a good head on your shoulders and a
tongue for argument as well. You’d make
a fine advocate yourself. It’s a pity
they don’t allow women to practice law.

Claire: Not yet.

Ned: It will be a few
centuries before that happens!

Claire: Only two.

(This is not in the book but it's funny and so far there is not as much humor as in the book)

The MacKenzies come across a
house being burnt down by the Watch, and Claire learns the owner was suspected
of being a traitor. She is upset that
the MacKenzies seem to be looting and says she won’t eat stolen food. Angus pulls a knife on her for the insult and Jamie has to
calm him down. Jamie then tries to talk
some sense into Claire, tells her not to judge them because she doesn’t
understand everything that’s going on.
Dougal seems to be getting more and more irritated that he brought her
along. Eventually, Claire picks up enough Gaelic to figure
out that Dougal is raising money for the Jacobite cause, to fund an army to
bring Bonnie Prince Charlie to Scotland to oust the Hanoverians. Long live the Stuarts! She has a flashback to Frank and Reverend Wakefield
discussing the Jacobite uprising, and realizes Dougal’s machinations are political,
not criminal.

Dougal finally asks Jamie if
he is committed to the Stuart cause (while Claire eavesdrops) and points out
that a Stuart king would help him to save his neck (because the British put a
price on his head). Jamie retorts that his
neck is his own concern, as is his back.
“Not while you travel with me, sweet lad!” Dougal tells him, clearly planning to go on using his scars to show the brutality of the English. Jamie is furious and stomps away but seems to
soften when he encounters Claire. He's mumbling, which is a bad habit of his, but I
think he tells Claire each person needs to determine for himself what’s worth
fighting for.

Claire now has a different
problem: she knows the rebellion will not nly be unsuccessful but also disastrous
to the Scots; however, there is no way to alert them without their thinking she is
crazy or a witch. At one point, she
tries to warn Ned Gowan, the most sensible member of the group but he dismisses
her warning. The journey takes a dark
turn when they discover two Scots who have been nailed to crosses by Redcoats
and left to die as alleged traitors.

That night, the MacKenzies stay
at an inn and Claire actually gets to sleep in a real bed, but she hears a
noise outside her room and opens the door, accidentally stepping on Jamie (again) and
wonders what the hell he’s doing. He reveals
that he is sleeping there to protect her from drunks. Once she understands, she urges him to come sleep
inside the room (on the floor) but that shocks Jamie, who says, “Your
reputation would be ruined!” Claire thinks
this is silly when she’s been traveling with these men for weeks without a
chaperone and persuades him to at least take a blanket.
They exchange a meaningful look before she firmly closes the door. Gallant Jamie! This is the best part of the episode.

There is a brawl in the tap
room the next morning and it isn’t until Claire is mending the men’s boo-boos
later that Murtagh tells her they were fighting to defend her honor! This is a turning point in her relationship
with the men, and she later makes a lewd joke about Rupert which the men
love. As the group passes over Culloden Moor, Claire has another flashback to Frank telling her about the extreme loss
of men in 1746 and how the British subsequently ended the Highland way of life
by disbanding the clans and forbidding the wearing of kilts. Claire knows the battle of Culloden is three
years away and wonders how many of the men she’s with now will die there.

She goes down to the river to
wash and Dougal follows her and demands (again) to know who she really is. She says she isn’t a spy, and while they are
arguing, the young Englishman she met earlier appears, armed and in his uniform,
with several other English officers.

Friday, September 12, 2014

As the episode begins, we see Claire
running urgently and it seems as if she is making her escape and is about to be
shot by a sentry, but after a nervous minute for viewers it turns out she is
playing with some castle children – clearly getting the lay of the land and
discarding her fichu to mark her escape route.
Falling down, she gets an unpleasant view of what Rupert is not wearing under his kilt, and manages
a put down with typical aplomb and sarcasm. Her two unofficial guards whine about her
prolonged playtime with the children because they don’t want to miss any of the
festivities (Angus and Rupert resemble Shakespearean buffoons in this episode) and
Claire pretends to give in, so they can all return to the castle where everyone
is arriving and gearing up for the Clan Gathering.

Diana Gabaldon as Lady Iona MacTavish

Claire stops in the stables,
ostensibly to pick out a horse to use at the Hunt the next day which she’ll be
attending in her healer role, but really to earmark one for her planned escape
that night.Oh so casually, she asks
where Jamie is because there’s nothing like a flirtation when one is planning
to steal a horse, and old Alec, always a downer, warns her to leave Jamie alone
because of the Gathering.“I didn’t
think I was a bother,” she mutters with annoyance.Alex tells her she can use a horse called
Brimstone, promising its personality belies the name.We can only hope.

Returning to her medical scullery in the Castle basement,
Claire is startled by nosy Geillis, uninvited and as curious as when we last
saw her quizzing Claire about her upbringing.
She notices Claire’s stash of food and jumps to the conclusion that
Claire is pregnant. Startled and
indignant, Claire tells Geillis she has never been unfaithful to her husband.

“So he’s dead, then,” replies Geillis.
If Claire weren’t so desperate for a bestie, she’d realize Geillis is worse
than no friend at all! Claire admits
that her husband is dead, and Geillis asks some impertinent questions about
whether Claire is barren. Then she moves
on to another topic, noticing that Claire has gathered a large quantity of
valerian, which can be used as a sleeping potion. Geillis tells Claire that when she arrived
in town, she had nothing but her wits to survive. She found an affluent husband and doesn’t
mind that he’s not much too look at because she can do as she pleases (famous
last words).

“Sometimes you find yourself on a path
you never expected. It doesn’t mean it
can’t lead you to a bonnie place,” she tells Claire. Geillis’ semi-accurate guessing is making
Claire nervous so Claire says she’ll see Geillis at the Gathering. Geillis warns Claire that being a woman
alone in the Highlands is dangerous.

However, the Highlands are very
welcoming to Diana Gabaldon, who snagged herself a speaking role in this
episode as an elegantly dressed guest at the Gathering (although Mrs. Fitz
comments that it’s the same dress Lady Iona wore at the last Gathering – burn!).Then Mrs. Fitz finds Claire looking for a
knife in the kitchen and dragged her away to be dressed up.The purpose of the Gathering is not just fun
but for pledging an oath of allegiance to Colum, Laird of the MacKenzie.Murtagh translates the symbolic language for
Claire while Colum presides, newly shaven and likely wearing the garments he
terrorized the tailor about in the previous episode.Dougal is the first to pledge his loyalty
(the women are ignored but get to clap at dramatic moments) and sips from the
special chalice.Claire takes the
opportunity to withdraw, pretending she wants to prepare for the next day’s
Hunt, but Rupert follows her, begging her to stay so he doesn’t have to miss
the fun.Acting as if she’s given in,
she smiles and offers him a swig of port from her handy-dandy Valerian-dosed
flask (spitting her mouthful discreetly on the floor).“It’s a sedative,” she says.“Is that Spanish?’Soon Rupert (unless it is Angus) has passed
out, which was her goal.

When Claire gets back to her surgery,
who is waiting for her this time but that annoying, big-eyed Laoghaire and she
wants Claire to provide a love potion to secure Jamie’s affections! This is not in the book and I don't approve for several reasons I don't have time to go into now. Claire gives the girl some horse dung (ugh) to
sprinkle outside Jamie’s door (but doesn’t he sleep in the stable?). “Good luck,” says Claire with seeming sincerity
but it’s not as if she gave Laoghaire a potion that would actually work . . . so
Jamie is safe.

Ready to make her escape, Claire heads
outside where she is immediately waylaid by some drunken Scots. This is not the first or last time in the
series Claire is nearly raped. She is
rescued by Dougal but he steals a kiss (which sounds lighthearted but isn’t)
and warns her to be careful or someone will want more. Claire first slaps him and then hits him with
a nearby chair, knocking him out cold.
Good work!

She heads for the stable, looking for
the horse, but steps on Jamie who is napping there. He guesses instantly what she is up to but
tells her she wouldn’t have got far with all the MacKenzies after her. He says he’ll bring her back to the castle,
and Claire reveals her disappointment that her plans are being thwarted, plus
tells him she can’t go back because she walloped Dougal with a chair, which
makes Jamie laugh. Then they are
discovered by some drunk clansmen who realize Jamie should be inside the Great
Hall and drag him inside to get ready. Angus (surely Rupert is passed out somewhere?) appears in time to help Jamie defend Claire’s honor and hands him a MacKenzie brooch
which Claire translates (forgetting she shouldn’t show off her education). Jamie looks at it and says it’s not his clan,
that his clan’s motto is Je suis prest (I am ready).

Claire doesn’t realize it but Jamie
has been strategically avoiding the Gathering because he does not want to pledge
his loyalty to Colum. As popular nephew
to the ill Colum, Jamie could be considered a possible heir and he knows that
Colum and Dougal want Colum’s son to succeed him. Jamie is afraid that if he doesn’t take the
Oath, his uncles will think he is disloyal but if he does, the rest of the clan
might think he is jockeying for position (think Scott Brown moving to New
Hampshire to run for office) and his uncles will have him killed. Claire
realizes it is her fault Jamie left the safety of the stables and is now forced
to make a strategic decision.

Jamie magnificently hedges his bets by
making a pledge of loyalty to his own clan, but swearing his obedience is to
his kinsmen, the MacKenzies. While
everyone in the Hall holds his or her breath, Colum decides to accept the
pledge and Jamie drinks up. And finally it's party time! Stomp your feet, clap your hands, everybody ready for a barnyard dance!

The next day is the Hunt, and although
Claire makes fun of all the men pursuing one little pig, what we see is an
impressively rendered boar and I wouldn’t go anywhere near it! Claire is not as lucky – she nearly gets
trampled by the boar but Dougal shoots it just in time. However, there is a casualty, which Claire's healing skills can't mend. She and Dougal keep Geordie company as he slowly dies. Dougal is grim at losing a friend but suddenly
all the men are playing field hockey and he grabs a stick and joins in (okay, it turns out to be an obscure Scottish game called shinty) . The tension and rivalry of the oath-giving seem to
return and Dougal goes after Jamie aggressively. As a former field hockey player myself, I was
taken aback by their rugby-like approach to the sport but the ultimate result
is that Jamie is victorious! Take that, Dougal!

Afterwards, Dougal comes to visit
Claire in her scullery (as Jamie predicted, if Dougal remembers about being hit
by the chair, he is not going to admit it).
“You’ve seen men die before, and by violence,” Dougal observes, and
Claire admits it. He thanks Claire for helping
Geordie die peacefully. Then he tells
Claire he is going to take her with him on a trip to collect the rents from
Colum’s tenants because a healer might be useful. “We leave at first light,” he says. Perched (presumably) on Brimstone, Claire
leaves Castle Leoch with Dougal, Jamie, and what look like Rupert and Murtagh
(wearing an elegant coat with furry cuffs and collar – thanks, Mrs. Fitz!), and
although she doesn’t know where they’re going she is secretly rejoicing because
she figures it must be closer to the Standing Stones than staying at the Castle
as Colum’s guest.

What’s Important About This Episode:

·Geillis continues to be suspicious of
Claire

·Jamie prevents Claire from escaping and
she prevents Jamie from avoiding the oath-taking to Colum

·Jamie shows great diplomacy in his
pledge to Colum, and we learn that he is taken seriously as a young warrior by the Clan. Murtagh reminds Claire that Jamie has a price
on his head.

·Dougal begins to take Claire more
seriously after the shared death of Geordie

Plot: This is a satirical look at the beautiful people of New York City, specifically a nameless heroine and her friend, Julie Bergdorf (supposedly the heiress to the department store where I could barely afford to buy Laura Mercier cosmetics), 20-somethings who spend their time partying and wearing designer clothing. When it seems like everyone they know is getting engaged and glowing attractively, she and Julie decide they too need to find eligible husbands and the rest of the book is about their misadventures as they try out various men as I would try out a new purse. It is no surprise who the nameless heroine ends up with but it is amazing the poor choices she makes along the way. It is hard to believe anyone who went to Princeton, even fictionally, could be quite so dimwitted.

What I liked: The book is entertaining, if implausible; in fact, it is not meant to be taken seriously. This glimpse of the idle Manhattan rich was a quick read for a hot summer day, and I liked the new packaging. However, I think it would be more fun to read all day than to party with these heroines!

What I disliked: I enjoy well done chick lit but found this book very silly and predictable, albeit funny at times. I did not care for all the (admittedly admiring) references to Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and at first wondered if the book had been written before her death (it had not). This gave it a dated feel. And unless you are Daphne DuMaurier, please give your heroine a name, if just for the sake of the reviewer!

Sykes was a Vogue editor who moved to NYC so presumably was acquainted with the sort of people in this book. Most of the people I worked with in book publishing had too much work to go out every night, although there were a few blonde women at Wiley who were hung over every morning...

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Plot: Anne Arlington is the
brilliant young woman who advises (mostly) affluent high school seniors on the
perfect essay that will make the difference in their college applications.But while Anne is gifted at helping an inarticulate
student find his or her voice (and thus the way to an admissions officer’s
heart), she lacks confidence in every aspect of her life – career, boyfriend,
and dealing with neighbors and parents.Distracted
by parents zealous on behalf of their privileged children, when will she be
able to figure out the key to her own success?

Audience: Fans of chick lit;
parents of high school seniors; anyone who remembers procrastinating about
college applications

What I liked: I could not put the book down, although as an alumni interviewer
for Harvard myself, there was not much in it that was new to me. I have often heard that a great essay can
make the difference for an applicant, and I enjoyed how this story was told by
looking at several different (and surprisingly appealing) applicants in a
combination of narrative and essays. It
was extremely funny while simultaneously convincing and at times horrifying. I am not sure I have met any parents as
dreadful as those in this book but I have seen lots of people lose all sense of
proportion during their children’s application process. And in NYC where I used to live the
competition begins with preschool admissions, long before college!

What I disliked: I didn’t
understand why Anne was so ashamed of her job, given that admissions
consultants can be well paid and successful, and she was clearly very
skilled. Nor did I understand the appeal
of her boyfriend, so wondered why she put up with him so long. She suffered from working at home and not
having any friends her own age except former grad school acquaintances. I got depressed reading about her depression,
and was impatient for her to come to her senses.

Staircase Wit

The French call it l'esprit d'escalier, "the wit of the staircase," those biting ripostes that are thought of just seconds too late, on the way out of the room - or even, to tell the truth, days later.